Rüdesheim am Rhein

Today was the big day on the Rhine, when we were going to take our boat trip through the Rhine Gorge and look at the castles. As it was the off season, they weren't running as frequently, so we had to time it right. We took the train up to Koblenz, then down the east side of the Rhine to Rüdesheim.

Rüdesheim is a pretty little town. It was a Celtic settlement, a Roman bridgehead, a Frankish town, and pretty much existed here making wine and shipping things down the Rhine for centuries. These days, it's known for its wine, Asbach brandy, a privately run international Christmas market, and as the jumping off place for visiting the Benedictine abbey of Saint Hildegard (as in Hildegard von Bingen, which is right across the river), and the Niederwald Denkmal, a monument of a triumphant Germania looking over the Rhine, marking the Unification of Germany in 1871.

We didn't visit any of those places today. Instead, we were going to buy our tickets, and take a boat ride up the Rhine. Except when we got there, the boat had been cancelled. Okay, well, thankfully, there was another company doing the trip, though a bit later. We bought tickets from them, and had a nice conversation about the Grateful Dead with the man who sold them to us.

Now we had some time on our hands, so we decided to walk around the town. It's very pretty, as I mentioned. Half timbered buildings, narrow alleys, grapevines everywhere. Lots of shops, places to stay, places to eat. Lots of tourists. LOTS. It's a regular stop for the river cruise ships and tour busses, where they load the passengers into the tram and take them up to the toy cabinet/ museum.

We almost got run over by one of said trams, wandering around. We went down the Drosselgasse, the main street of wine shops and restaurants. Then we walked around a bit above the town in the rows of grapevines.

We decided to head back, since we didn't want to miss our boat. The sights from the river were the main reason we came up this way, and the ticket was only valid for that sailing. I definitely didn't want to pay for it twice, because it wasn't cheap.Читать далее